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SONGWRITING MONTH DAY 20: Pop Music

PROMPT: Learn a pop song.

I wrote this prompt in April (as that is when I brainstormed for these) and as I wrote it down today in this here blog template, I realized that I wasn’t exactly sure what officially makes a song a pop song. So I went to Wikipedia, of course.

It derives from Rock and Roll.  It’s from the 1950s. I guess it has to have a catchy hook to be a pop song; it has to have a verse chorus structure.  It’s aimed at the youth market. Maybe everyone knows this already, but because I’m really out of the pop culture loop, I had to look it up.

Part of the reason I want to learn a pop song is because I am amused at the challenge of taking, say, a Madonna song and making it work on the guitar.  Or maybe a Michael Jackson song. Yes. A folky version of a Michael Jackson song sounds like a good project for today.

SONG OF THE DAY: Billie Jean

I had a fun time looking up people’s acoustic versions of MJ songs on Youtube.  This one impressed and amused me. PS: I have no idea who this dude is.

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SONGWRITING MONTH DAY 19: A Song You Once Loved

PROMPT: Learn a song you liked before you turned 13 years old.

I’m having a good time remembering the songs I used to like as a kid.  Some of them, like Bryan Adams’s “Everything I Do, I Do It For You” I consider today to be so awful that I laugh at the thought of them (sorry if you’re still a fan).  Mostly, I just liked Broadway musicals–The Secret Garden, Les Miserables, and the Phantom of the Opera in particular. When I was too little to know what I was listening to, I had a thing for Paul Simon’s entire Graceland album.  So I had some good taste built in me. Also, I remember being obsessed with the song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”

SONG OF THE DAY: Dead

The first band I ever loved (and there is a chance that it was the first band you ever loved, too–) was They Might Be Giants.  Good God, I felt so cool listening to They Might Be Giants.

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SONGWRITING MONTH DAYS 17 & 18: Woody Loves the Kids

I had to make a last minute emergency drive across the country yesterday and so I didn’t get a chance to make a post.  Today I’m playing catch up.

PROMPT FOR DAY 17: Learn a Woody Guthrie song.

If you know me, you know I love me some Woody Guthrie.  I think it’s a singer/songwriter’s duty to keep his music alive, since he wrote hundreds of songs that are considered a big part of (our) American heritage.  Check out this biography page if you need more info about this dude.  There is a reason I call him Saint Woody. There is a reason I named my dog after him.

Because his songs are super easy (G/C/D anyone?), this prompt shouldn’t take too long to complete.  You can find an archive of his song lyrics here. Feel free to add your own tune. You know, like you’re Wilco or Bily Bragg or something.

PROMPT FOR DAY 18: Write a song for a child.

It could be a children’s song. It could just be a song that’s dedicated to a child. By the way, Woody Guthrie wrote tons of them.

SONG OF THE DAY(s): Why, Oh Why

This is my favorite children’s song that Woody Guthrie wrote.

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SONGWRITING MONTH DAY 16: Song for Someone Else

TODAY’S PROMPT: Learn a song someone else likes or that you associate with someone else.  If you get good at playing it, maybe you can play it for them some time.

TODAY’S SONG: We Won’t Get Fooled Again

There is a game I like to play where I ask people which 1960s band they like the most out of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, and the Kinks.  Apparently, says the friend who taught it to me, you can learn a lot about a person through their answer.  I choose the Who.  I haven’t listened to all of the Who’s stuff, but what I have heard moves and wows me more than any of the others.  They are the only band I can listen to jam out without getting bored.

My father also loves the Who–has loved the Who since way before me. It’s either a music preference gene or I just like the music my dad likes. One of the two. He claims they lived in Detroit for a while before they were famous.  He claims his brother saw them play in a high school around here.

Well, folks. It’s Father’s Day. Here’s my father’s favorite Who song.

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SONGWRITING MONTH DAY 15: The Two Chorder

PROMPT: Write a song with two chords.

If you’ve seen me perform, you know I have one of these and you might also know that I usually use it to start my set because it’s less stressful to play.  Who knows, I may get another starter-song out of this prompt.

SONG OF THE DAY: Memphis Tennessee

This Chuck Berry song has two chords.  He does does a lot with those two chords, though.

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SONGWRITING MONTH DAY 14: Another Language

Today’s prompt is inspired by the fact that I’m having lunch with my high school Spanish teacher today. Unfortunately, exposure to the Thai language has really confused my ability to speak Spanish. But hey! Maybe I’ll get some Spanish back today.

PROMPT: Learn a song in another language (besides the primary one you speak).

You get to choose the language.  I’m probably going to learn a song in Thai, probably a song that the Thai King wrote.

SONG OF THE DAY: ยามเย็น ~ Love at Sundown

This is an example of a song that the Thai King, Rama 9, wrote.  He’s got a lot of titles, including “The Agriculture King,” but my favorite thing about him is that he writes music and is sometimes called “The Jazzy King.” (See photo above!) He writes music, primarily jazz and blues. I love his music.

This song here (“Yam Yen” is how to pronounce the Thai title), is one I used to sing when I lived in Bangkok and performed with a choir made up primarily of Thai senior citizens. (LONG STORY, not as long as the cover band story though).  I was their magic farang they pulled out of a hat at concerts and things who could sing solos written by the Thai King.

This version of “Yam Yen” is kind of hokey, but the King’s music isn’t always performed in this hokey crowd-pleasing way.  I happen to love a bit of hoke, though, especially Thai hoke, but if you take a step back you can recognize that it has a gorgeous tune.

I recommend that you take a youtube tour of his music though–it’s good!

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SONGWRITING MONTH DAY 13: Tom Waits

 

PROMPT: Learn a Tom Waits song.

If you don’t know who Tom Waits is, and you’re a songwriter, you’re in for a treat.  This dude has been writing songs since the 1970’s (maybe earlier) and has a huge range of styles and subject matter to delight his listeners.  He can be tender and outright frightening.  His songs have been covered by everyone who is anyone in the singer/songwriter field.

He’s kind of like Bob Dylan (who also gets covered a lot) because his voice is not  exactly what we would call pretty but his songs lend themselves to all kinds of voices.  The man just writes wonderful songs–songs that invite anyone to reinvent and play with what’s already, well, a solid piece of music.

For instance, if you’ve watched THE WIRE, you will recognize that each season begins with a different version of Tom Waits’s, “Way Down in the Hole.”  High five to the person who complied all the versions into a single Youtube video:

Season 1: Blind Boys of Alabama

Season 2: Tom Waits (himself!)

Season 3: The Neville Brothers

Season 4: DoMaJe

Season 5: Steve Earle

My favorite Tom Waits album is called Mule Variations.  I think it’s a good place to start if you’re not too familiar with his music.

SONG OF THE DAY: Chocolate Jesus

This is one of my favorite singer/songwriters, Kim Taylor, covering a great Tom Waits song.

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SONGWRITING MONTH DAY 12: The Four-Chorder

Get ready, people! We’re writing a song today.

PROMPT: Write a song with the same four chords repeated over and over. 

People who write songs tell me that they either start with words or melody.I decided on this prompt because I want to see if I can start a song with the melody before the words.  I usually write the words first.

SONG OF THE DAY: High and Dry

A fine four-chorder for your listening enjoyment.  The BENDS is my most favorite of  the Radiohead albums–probably because it’s the most singer-songwritery. I’m pretty sure that without this song, there would be no Coldplay.

(Still deciding if that is a good or bad thing.)

 

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SONGWRITING MONTH DAY 11: Smashed Expectations

TODAY’S PROMPT: Learn a song usually sung by someone who is not like you.

If you’re a black woman, learn a Rufus Wainwright song; if you’re a white woman, learn a John Legend song, if you’re a male of either race, sing an Aretha Franklin song, etc.

This prompt comes from my days in Bangkok singing in a cover band.   If you didn’t know I did this, well, now you do.  It’s a great story and hopefully it will be an essay one day, a famous essay, so you all can read it from some famously wonderful source.

When I first joined the band, the guitar player (named Lynchee) gave me a stack of 1990’s, early 2000s alternative/pop songs that were all sung by women.  “Don’t Speak” was in there, for instance. So was “Top of the World” and “Zombie.”  The whole covering other people’s music thing didn’t really click from me until I started singing U2 songs, or until I covered “Creep” by Radiohead.

The explanation was simple: I had more freedom with these songs.  As soon as the audience recognized the song and then understood that I, a not-bald man but curly haired white woman, was going to be singing “Losing My Religion,” they dropped their expectations about how the song was supposed to sound.  I think they liked that one the most because my version of it was, well, really different.

TODAY’S SONG: Always Be My Baby

David Cook knew exactly what I was talking about when he covered this song on American Idol years ago. For me it’s like, middle school meets whoa.

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SONGWRITING MONTH DAY 10: Up To You

TODAY’S PROMPT: Learn a song, any song, just because you like it.

Today, songwriting month is as easy as you make it.

I’m probably going to learn a Harry Nilsson song today because I love him and have no idea how to play any of his songs.

TODAY’S SONG: Think About Your Troubles

This my favorite song a lot of the time. Not just favorite Nilsson song. Favorite song.